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Saturday, May 03, 2008

My Bombay Kitchen: Finale Feast

"Dhansak is our emblematic Parsi dish," Niloufer Ichaporia King writes in My Bombay Kitchen. "The one we're named after by anyone who characterizes people by what they eat."

That would be people just like me. And so Dhansak seemed like the perfect way to end the Parsi fortnight.

King's Dhansak recipe covers three pages of My Bombay Kitchen and involves putting sixteen ingredients -- two kinds of legume, many vegetables, chilies, and some herbs -- in a giant pot and letting them boil away until they essentially collapse. After that, you run the murky potage through a food mill, and to the resulting puree add some onions you have fried with Dhana Jiru and Sambhar Masala. Then you cook the Dhansak for another hour while you scramble around trying to assemble the side dishes. (Sorry Mark -- this post will definitely be prolix.)

In my case the Dhansak banquet started with papads -- the spicy, paper thin Indian crackers -- which I tried to toast on a gas flame. This is the method King recommends if, to paraphrase, you don't want to become incredibly fat. "You will have to sacrifice one or two victims until you work out your papad choreography," King warns. I could not get the hang of flame-toasting and finally said, screw it, heated oil and started frying. Excellent decision! You buy packaged papadsat Indian markets; I have no idea how one would make them from scratch.

What else. . .

Oh God, there was so much else. I made the delicate caramelized fried rice and sweet-and-sour onion kachumbar -- a wonderful relish full of tangy tamarind and rich brownjaggery -- that are the traditional accompaniments to Dhansak. I fried some spicy, crusty kebabs and mixed up a batch of banana raita. King's is an eccentric recipe for banana raita, instructing you to add dry mustard powder to the yogurt "until you get that wasabi feeling in the back of your head."

Still wondering: Do I want that wasabi feeling in the back of my head?

To help us eat this gargantuan meal, Justine, Michael, and Stella kindly agreed to come over, providing thoughts, compliments, poison of delight, and photography assistance. I've offered my own assessments of many of the specific dishes, but I have not commented on the Dhansak itself.

It is painful to admit that the Dhansak was a huge disappointment. For all that chopping and food milling and boiling, it struck me as nothing more than an olive-drab, harshly-spiced lentil soup. I've read other recipes that include lamb, or chicken, so maybe it is not Dhansak I don't care for, but this recipe. It's such a symbolically sad way to end the mostly happy Parsi era by disliking the "emblematic" Parsi dish.

7 comments:

how can one search for blogs on the blogger or blogspot site? I wanted to see if I could find this blog by searching for indian food, or something like that. but when I sign in, the only search field I get, in the upper left-hand corner, doesn't seem to help.

Dhansak! Poor Dhansak! you have been much maligned by T.B. And unjustly so! Lentil Soup? no no no, this was scrumptious, flavorful, nourishing, enthralling, spicy! i will agree that it didn't look very exciting, and that it was a little thin, but i LOVED it. Really, i am going to hop in my car right now and come relieve of your poor, misunderstood oversupply. mmm. and the meatballs that went with it: fantastic. as was the rhubarb chutney I ate about 3 cups of.

and phipka, while i heartily agree with your moral, i'd add another moral to this experience which is that sometimes tasty is in the mouth of the taster. and let's never forget that hunger is the best sauce, after rhubarb chutney that is!

I almost feel like writing a new post, but no. I was much to hard on Dhansak. I just reheated it for lunch and it was just great. Also healthy. Also very low in Weight Watchers points! Just 2.5 for a wholesome, hearty, super-spicy cup. If I'd stayed away from the banana bread (5 points per slice) I'd be in great shape.

As a parsi I will tell you rule number one with our cuisine - it tastes TEN TIMES better on day two or three. The flavors need a lot of time to marry. Congrats on making the full recipe, glad you enjoyed it the next day!

Moro by Sam & Sam Clark. Shelf essential? Yes. An all-time favorite. A brilliant and fascinating book about the cuisines of North Africa and the Mediterranean.

Gourmet Today edited by Ruth Reichl. Shelf Essential? No. Not a bad book, but it can't decide if it's aspiring to be an all-purpose classic or something else entirely. It's neither. Recipes are mostly solid, few outstanding.

Mexico, One Plate at a Time by Rick Bayless. Shelf essential? No, but a very useful and reliable Mexican cookbook.

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop. Shelf essential? Yes, especially if you're a Chinese food fanatic and want to delve into its regional cuisines. Though some of the recipes are too weird even for me, the beef with cumin was one of the best things I've ever cooked.

The Seventh Daughter by Cecilia Chiang. Shelf essential? Sure, though if there's only room in your collection for one "basic" Chinese cookbook go for Barbara Tropp's Modern Art of Chinese Cooking.